from Jon Miller, Associate Professor of English, The University of Akron, Ohio, USA.

The Pueblo of Zuni

In the 1560s, Pedro de Castañeda (1510?-70?) wrote a narrative of Coronado's 1540-42 expedition to Cíbola, which he experienced as a private soldier. Led here by erroneous reports of great wealth, the disappointed Coronado seized Zuni Pueblo, a small settlement, and used it as a military base. Excerpts from Castañeda's narrative can be found in Mulford's anthology. They include a piece of the rambling, deferential preface, so customary for these works; the story of the murder of "the negro Stephen," whose black skin made the Zuni Pueblo think him a liar for claiming to be from a world of white men; a description of the disappointment at finding such cities, where the Spanish expected to find so much more; and details of the customs and habits of the people at Chichilticalli (now somewhere in northern Arizona), among whom Castañeda witnessed "no drunkenness . . . nor sodomy nor sacrifices." See Pedro de Castañeda, "from Castañeda's Narrative," trans. George Parker Winship. Early American Writings, ed. Carla Mulford, Angela Vietto, and Amy E. Winans (New York: Oxford UP, 2002) 93-109. Here is a Google Earth placemark for a low-resolution image of Zuni Pueblo. A visit to the official website of the Pueblo of Zuni will help you understand what you are seeing from the sky. Download 1540ZuniPuebloCoronadosCibola.kmz (1.3K).